Less than two weeks after Germany's Advanced Medien announced the closure of its theatrical operations at the end of the year, the rights trader has now reforecast its consolidated sales for 2001 from Euros 23m to between Euros 18m-Euros 20m.

Although sales in the third quarter, at Euros 4.2m were up 12.7% on the same period for 2000, overall sales for the first nine months of 2001 registered only Euros 12.5m (2000: Euros 22.8m) with a negative EBIT of minus Euros 9.45m (2000: minus Euros 0.52m) and an operating result of minus Euros 10.25m (2000: minus Euros 0.59m).

The bulk of the third quarter sales of Euros 4.2m were generated through the delivery of the action title Epoch, licensing sales from Ghost World, and the consolidated sales of the subsidiary U.F.O. Unified Film Organisation.

Meanwhile. Advanced's noted that the next few weeks would see the company continuing its intensive search for companies to come onboard as partners, concluding that "initial negotiations with interested parties are already underway".